Buyer Beware

Some Map Makers Try To Hide Their Product`s Age Behind A Bizarre Code

January 21, 1990|By Betsy Wade, New York Times News Service.

If the map says French Indochina, it is probably not the best one to buy for getting around in Southeast Asia. But failing to spy such startling evidence of age, it is difficult these days to tell how old a map in a store may be.

Copyright laws have been eased and some cartographers have been chary about saying how long it has been since a map was revised, even though it may have a fresh new design on the cover.

So I set out to crack the codes of a map`s age.

It would have been easier to get the formula for Coca-Cola or the nuclear bomb. Antiques aside, map makers and map stores are marketing a product that is perishable, but is not controlled by laws such as those that govern the freshness of bread or milk.

Conroy Erickson, a Rand McNally representative, said the American map industry has been in radical change since the Arab oil embargo of 1972, which spelled the end of the free map at gas stations, returning maps to their status of goods for sale.

Channels and outlets are still being developed and often map companies have no idea how many old maps are in a distributor`s warehouse. Vending machines along interstates may not get restocked with any regularity.

Laws have changed

Changes in U.S. copyright laws have affected consumers` ability to discern how old a map is.

When the U.S. copyright law was revised in 1978, it permitted companies that created ``useful articles`` to omit the copyright date from the notice on the article.

According to Victor Martin, head of the information section in the copyright office in the Library of Congress, some publishers construed the phrase ``useful article`` to apply to maps and began omitting the date from the copyright notice.

But this anomaly continued for only 11 years, and from the consumer information standpoint, things got worse last year.

On March 1, 1989, the United States became party to the Bern Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

This brought the United States into copyright contact with nations beyond those it already had copyright treaties with and permits a U.S. copyright-holder to enter the court system of these nations to seek restitution if a copyright is infringed.

The astonishing aspect of this step is that the Bern Convention eliminated the requirement that a copyright notice be placed on the copyrighted article.

However, Martin said, ``prudent`` publishers are continuing to put copyright notices on their publications, although the date is strictly at their option.

But map makers and particularly sales people need to know when a map was revised, and companies print all sorts of codes on their maps to indicate this when the copyright provides no clue.

Unreliable cover dates

Dates on the covers of maps or books of maps are not reliable indicators. The American Automobile Association begins its annual revisions in its road atlas in March and closes in August, shipping about October for the coming year.

Elke Owen, the chief cartographer at AAA, said that 12 double-page spreads of data were completely revised for the 1990 edition on the basis of what was most urgently needed. In addition, Owen said, eight double-page spreads were extensively revised.

This total of 20 pages of material bear copyright dates of 1988 and 1989, which AAA prints in Roman numerals: MCMLXXXVIII and MCMLXXXIX.

Rand McNally says that its annual cycle on revising maps for its road atlas runs from July to July, and that the books are shipped in October.

So the latest revisions in the 1990 atlas from this company would have been made in July, 1989. Maps in this atlas bear a double copyright date, 1990 and 1980.

Code explained

The second date, Erickson said, represents the year that the entire current format of the atlas was established. Rand McNally also puts a code on each map that represents the same information in the form ``9080,`` plus other numbers that appear to identify the map itself and often the month of the year of publication.

The first two figures of this number code, also used on the separate Rand McNally maps, represent the year.

The AAA, on the other hand, adapts the maps it gives to members for its atlas. AAA maps for members are pretty clearly dated. On the strip maps, the organization gives you to chart out a trip, there is a bold number that indicates the year of revision.

The Roman-numeral copyright date on these maps is generally much earlier because, according to Owen, a copyright on a strip map is good for 25 years.

General Drafting, which publishes TravelVision maps and creates maps for Exxon in the United States and some of the Esso maps overseas, uses a simple code that it did not want to disclose, but it was described in a letter given to me by a friend.

The code consists of a letter followed by two numbers, which represent the number of years since 1952, when the company moved to its new office, which it calls the Castle, in Convent Station, N.J.